by Ben Wolf
“Axel, stop!” Calum snapped at him and grabbed his shoulder to pull him back, but Axel shrugged Calum’s grip off and stormed toward Gavridel. “Axel!”
Riley seemed uncertain of what to do. He’d continued backing up, and so had the Sobeks flanking him, but the King and Matthios had also continued to advance, tightening the noose.
“Your Majesty,” Calum shouted quickly, “I’m prepared to honor the terms of our deal. These are my friends. Please don’t harm them. I didn’t call them here. They don’t know what we’ve been—”
A charcoal blur launched into the hall from the window, just like before. Silver flashed, but somehow the King moved even faster. He caught Condor with both hands—one clamped down on the wrist of Condor’s sword hand, and the other fastened around his throat—totally stopping him in midair.
The King wore the same indifferent expression as usual, but Calum knew that meant nothing.
Based on Condor’s wide-eyed expression, the King was going to crush his throat.
Calum did the only thing he could do.
He shoved past the Sobeks and Riley, stretched out his left hand, and summoned the full power of Lumen’s light.
As Lumen appeared in the Blood Mountains near Reptilius, he registered the distant clap of power—his power—all the way from Solace. Calum had finally summoned the full power Lumen had given to him.
Perhaps Calum will return to my army after all, Lumen mused.
But that was no longer his focus. Whether Calum did or didn’t make it out of Solace was of little concern. Lumen had more pressing concerns to attend to.
It didn’t take him long to find the carcass of the mighty Dragon King, Kahn. Magnus had crushed his skull and hurled him down the mountainside, and his body had lain there ever since as a testament to Kahn’s apathy and failure to secure his power.
Lumen harbored no sympathy for him. He’d wasted his power as the ruler of Reptilius, and a stronger force had sent him to his demise.
But a Dragon was still a Dragon, whether alive or dead. Lumen could not create such a creature—not yet, anyway… not until he had the throne of Kanarah—but that didn’t mean Kahn’s form was useless to him.
Although carrion birds and scavengers had long since devoured his tongue, eyes, wing membranes, and some of the flesh inside his mouth, Kahn’s armored scales had kept most of his body intact. Though it had bloated and reeked of decay, the empty husk was still quite usable.
Lumen descended toward Kahn and, with a single touch of his hand, he initiated the process of resurrection. It wasn’t truly a resurrection, as Kahn was dead and could not be brought back, but rather more of a reanimation.
Though Kahn had died, Lumen’s power would flow throughout the Dragon’s body, making him even more powerful than he’d ever been in life—and also totally under Lumen’s control, unlike the current Dragon King.
It only took a moment for the first twitch to shudder throughout Kahn’s body. The sight of it filled Lumen with eagerness. He had remembered the magic of reanimation, but he’d forgotten the profound power of the end result.
Once again, the world would see his true power, and they would tremble before it. The King himself would bow before Lumen, and then Lumen would put an end to him forever.
And then Kanarah would again be free.
Pain ignited in Calum’s fingers, and it screamed into his hand, his wrist, up his forearm and then all the way into his shoulder. It seared the inside of his veins, raced into his collarbone and up his neck, and it crept down into his chest, scorching his lungs. Tendrils of fire even reached for his heart.
The light stunned the King, and he dropped Condor, who hit the ground and clutched his eyes, as did everyone else who saw the flash, including Riley, the Sobeks, and Matthios. Only the King and Calum remained standing.
Steam rose from the King’s white robe, half of which was now gone, exposing more of the bronze skin of his upper torso, now tinged red from the burn Calum had inflicted on him. Embers fizzled and smoked away to nothing on the ends of the King’s beard.
But the King was still standing.
Calum, on the other hand, couldn’t move.
After the blast, his left arm had betrayed him. It curled up like a dead withered branch, pressed tightly against his side, and his desperate fingers clutched at the burning spreading throughout his chest.
Though he was no longer summoning Lumen’s light, the pain continued to delve deeper into his body, conquering his veins and arteries like a wildfire devouring dry brush. It wasn’t just spreading, he realized—it was consuming him from the inside out.
Was he finally realizing the full potential of the power Lumen had bestowed upon him?
If he was, why did it hurt so much? Why did he feel like he was dying instead?
As the pain reached his hammering heart, Calum threw his head back and screamed.
Then he fell to the floor.
Lilly’s face loomed over his. He heard her voice, perfect and pure and desperate and distant. He felt her touching his chest, his arm, and his face, but numbly, as if he were awakening from a dream—or perhaps she was the dream.
Riley’s face appeared next, then Axel’s, then Condor’s, all of them frantic.
Then burning light began to sear at the edges of Calum’s vision, threatening to wash everything white.
All he could do was scream again.
“Someone help him!” Lilly shouted.
Axel wanted to do just that, but he had no idea what was happening. He’d never seen anything like this before. Calum had used Lumen’s power, and then he’d collapsed. His left hand, arm, neck, and chest all glowed with bright light from inside his veins. It was easily the most horrifying thing Axel had ever seen.
It got even worse when the veins in Calum’s face began to glow white as well, followed by his eyes. When he opened his mouth to scream, light shone from within his throat as well.
Was this Lumen’s power? Or was this something else?
More importantly, what could Axel do to help Calum? What could any of them do?
He’d abandoned his plans to duel Gavridel when Calum’s flash had stunned everyone in the hallway, including the King himself. The attack had actually harmed the King, too, which was the most impressive part about it.
But the end result was catastrophic, and Axel could do nothing to help his friend.
When Axel looked at Lilly again, she was looking up at the King.
“Help him!” Tears streamed down her cheeks. “Please!”
For the first time since Axel had known him, the King moved quickly. He was at Calum’s side in an instant, just as fast as Condor or Riley might’ve gotten there.
Up close, with the left upper quadrant of the King’s robe obliterated by Calum’s blast of light, Axel could clearly see the redness of the burn that had taken to the King’s bronze skin. It canvassed his exposed chest up to his shoulder, and then it went back down his arm again.
Incredible. Axel marveled at the sight. Calum had hurt the King—the most powerful being in all of Kanarah, other than Lumen—with the power Lumen had given him.
“I can help him, but I cannot do so unless he consents,” the King said to Lilly.
The King’s words infuriated Axel. “Why can’t you just help him anyway?”
The King’s vibrant green eyes met Axel’s. “He accepted this power freely. He must accept mine freely as well.”
It made no sense to Axel, but he wasn’t about to argue. The King was their only shot at saving Calum.
“Calum.” The King cupped Calum’s glowing cheeks and leaned his face in close. “Calum, will you accept my aid?”
Calum’s mouth opened, but no sound came out.
Instead, he closed his glowing eyes and began convulsing.
“Calum!” Lilly cried.
“Calum!” Axel shouted, too, and he even went so far as to try to hold Calum’s arms down. He felt stronger than ever.
The light had spread throughout alm
ost his entire body now, and it shone so brightly that Axel thought it might sear through Calum’s clothes.
“Calum, if you cannot respond, then just take my hand.” The King pressed his hand against Calum’s trembling right hand.
Lilly continued crying out to him, and Axel continued trying to keep Calum still. All the while, he begged the Overlord to let Calum live, to get him to respond.
Come on, Calum…
Calum could hear their shouts. He could see the King. He’d heard every word from all of them, albeit distantly, as if they’d shouted at him from across a huge field.
The pain in his body had jolted through every blood vessel, every nerve, every fiber of muscle, every organ. All he knew now was pain, and it had paralyzed him.
He was going to die, and though he wanted to accept the King’s offer of help more than anything, he couldn’t communicate it. He’d lost control of his body because of Lumen’s power.
Whatever it was doing to him, it would kill him before it could possibly remake him. Why would Lumen have gifted him power like this? Or had he misused it somehow?
Or was he actually supposed to die before he would truly understand?
When the King’s hand touched Calum’s, he realized that was his last chance.
He couldn’t speak, and he couldn’t see the King’s hand—everything had gone white in his vision, whether he kept his eyes open or closed them.
But he could still feel the King’s hand. Its presence. Its warmth.
Its power.
And all Calum had to do was take hold of it.
But could he even do that?
His left hand seemed to be shaking more than any other part of his body. Perhaps it was because he’d accepted Lumen’s power through his left hand, and it had spread up his left arm the more he used it.
But his right hand…
His right hand was shaking hardly at all. It still burned like the rest of his body, but Lumen’s power hadn’t fully corrupted it yet.
But Calum still couldn’t move it. The power was overriding his will, molding it into something else—something arcane and furious. Something born of pain and agony. Something…
Something not human.
If Calum didn’t try now, he would cease to exist forever.
With every last fragment of focus he could mash together, he gave his right hand one final command.
Chapter Thirty-Seven
Axel couldn’t help but gasp when Calum’s right hand latched onto the King like a newborn child grabbing at his father’s fingers for the first time.
The King’s huge palm swallowed Calum’s right hand, and his fingers closed around it. Then a green energy similar in color to the King’s eyes began to glow from the King’s hand.
It transferred to Calum’s hand and enveloped it, and then it crept up his right arm, dispersing the white-hot light in Calum’s veins. Wherever the green glow traveled, and wherever the white light vanished, Calum’s convulsing stopped.
Axel shifted his attention to the King and immediately noticed the incredible strain on his face. The act of saving Calum was taking a toll on him—perhaps it was even killing him instead.
They couldn’t possibly be that lucky.
Unless… had Lumen planned this all along? Had Lumen set Calum up to expire right then and there, to somehow force the King to use his power to save Calum instead of reserving it for the upcoming battle?
Axel couldn’t comprehend the amount of planning that would’ve gone into a scheme like that. But then again, Lumen had been locked away for a thousand years. That was a long time to plan revenge on a massive scale, to nail down even the finest details, like when the power inside Calum would reach the point where it overwhelmed him.
It seemed too good to be true, but so was Lumen, and he was as real as can be. For now, Axel just took note of the King’s growing weakness. With Gavridel and Matthios so nearby, even if Axel wanted to kill the King, he knew he’d never get away with it.
But he didn’t have to be the one to kill the King. Lumen wanted that honor, anyway. And when Axel got out of there, he would tell Lumen exactly what he’d seen.
Calum had stopped convulsing, and the white light no longer burned inside his veins. He looked normal again, except for a centralized glowing orb on the left side of his chest—his heart, Axel realized. It burned just as brightly as Calum’s veins had, through Calum’s tunic, but it wasn’t moving anywhere. It was stable.
The King sat back against the wall with his elbows resting on his knees, looking truly exhausted. He drew in long, labored breaths, and sweat trickled down from his forehead and pooled on the floor between his legs.
It was an incredible sight. Axel had never imagined the King could get so tired. He never even slept, so seeing him worn out like this boggled Axel’s mind.
“Is he going to be alright?” Lilly asked, her face still streaked with tears.
The King gave a haggard nod in response, but he said nothing.
Then Calum’s eyes opened, and he inhaled a shaky breath.
“Calum!” Lilly reached down and embraced him. She pressed her face into his shoulder and sobbed, and as he realized what was happening, he wrapped her in an embrace as well.
“We need to get him outta here,” Axel said, looking at Riley now.
Lilly’s head snapped up, now wet with fresh tears. “What are you talking about? Didn’t you just see what happened?”
“Our way out is waiting for us,” Axel said. “And I’m taking it. Calum needs help now—real help from Lumen.”
“It was Lumen’s power that did this to him.” Lilly almost snarled the words at him.
Axel shook his head. “You don’t know that. We don’t know what would’ve happened.”
“If he goes back to Lumen now,” the King interjected from his place against the wall, “Lumen’s power will reawaken, and it will kill him. I have stabilized it, but Lumen can still alter it.”
“And we’re supposed to believe you?” Axel scoffed.
“Axel!” Lilly snapped. “He just saved Calum’s life! Isn’t that enough for you to start trusting him? Even a little?”
The more Axel saw of the King, the more it all threatened everything he’d ever believed about Kanarah, about the King, about life itself. Part of him wanted to trust the King, but a bigger part of him had already made up his mind.
The King was the ultimate villain, and every move he made was calculated. He would never deal with them earnestly. He would never fix Kanarah, because he couldn’t. His soldiers would continue ravaging the men and women of this land, and no one would ever hold them accountable.
Not unless Lumen took over. It was their only chance.
“I will never trust him,” Axel stated.
His eyes found the King’s, and Axel noted how they’d lost most of the vibrancy he’d grown accustomed to over the last two days. He had really poured himself out to save Calum. Axel appreciated that, but in the end, the King still had to go.
Axel fixed his eyes on Calum, who still lay on the floor.
“Calum, it’s time. You went out and found Lumen. You risked your life countless times to set him free,” Axel said. “Don’t just throw all of that away. Especially not for the King whose men killed your parents.”
Axel extended his hand toward Calum, who slowly rose to his feet on his own. When Calum took hold of Axel’s hand, everything fell back into place. They were best friends again, and they were going to tear this broken system down piece-by-piece, right alongside Lumen.
Calum pulled Axel close and embraced him. Axel wasn’t the hugging type, but his best friend had just come back from death’s door, so he leaned into the embrace and gave Calum a strong man-hug.
But then everything that had fallen into place kept falling. It all shattered on the floor when Calum said, “I’m staying.”
Axel broke off their embrace immediately and glared at Calum. “No.”
“I’m staying,” Calum repeated. The white light�
�Lumen’s light—still glowed within his chest.
Axel shook his head. “You promised me, Calum. You swore you would return with me. You promised me right here, in this very hallway.”
“I’m sorry,” Calum said, resolute, “but I’m staying. This is where I belong.”
“He’s bewitched you. Corrupted you.”
“He saved my life, Axel. By the Law of Debt, I owe him mine in return.”
“That’s an ancient law that has no meaning anymore.” Axel spat the words, furious at Calum. He couldn’t make this choice. They’d been through everything together. They’d survived living nightmares together.
And now Calum wanted to tear their friendship apart for good.
“Stay here.” Calum gave him a modest smile. “In time, you’ll come to understand what I see. It’s all so clear to me now…”
“You’re losing it.” Axel corrected himself, “You’ve already lost it. You can’t do this. You promised me.”
“I’m staying,” Calum repeated.
Axel had one more card to play, and he played it. “If you do this, our friendship is over. We will be on opposite sides of the same war. We’ll be enemies.”
Calum didn’t even hesitate. “I’m staying.”
Axel clenched his fists and his teeth. “By the Overlord… you’re so stubborn.”
“I’m staying. You don’t have to go.”
Axel shook his head. Calum had made his choice, and Axel had made his.
Only days earlier, they had fought each other over something so asinine that Axel couldn’t even remember what it was. Now, when he most needed to knock some sense into Calum, he couldn’t.
It wasn’t because the others would stop him—he didn’t care if they tried or not.
Axel couldn’t fight Calum again because he knew it wouldn’t do any good. His mind was made up. It was done.
With every ounce of steel built up in his heart, Axel uttered, “Goodbye, Calum.”
